Official name День захисника України Frequency annual | Date 14 October | |
 | ||
Celebrations concerts, expos, and festivals Next time 14 October 2017 (2017-10-14) | ||
Defender of Ukraine Day (Ukrainian: День захисника України, Den' zakhysnyka Ukrayiny) is a state holiday in Ukraine celebrated annually on October 14. Its first celebration was in 2015. Starting from 2015, this day is considered a public holiday (this is thus a day off in Ukraine).
Contents
History
On 14 October 2014, a decree by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko decreed the new holiday. This decree was approved by the Ukrainian parliament on 5 March 2015.
The holiday replaced the former February 23's holiday called Defender of the Fatherland Day, which has its origin in the Soviet Union. (As the Ukrainian SSR Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union from 1922 until Ukraine declared its independence from the Soviet Union on 24 August 1991.)
14 October in Ukrainian history
The chairman of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance Volodymyr Viatrovych motivated the choice of the date for October 14 on the Ukrainian historical tradition of honoring the Ukrainian army on the day of the Intercession of the Theotokos. This holiday has been celebrated by Ukrainians since the 12th century. The holiday was especially popular among Ukrainian Cossacks, who celebrated it since at least the 17th century as they believed the Mother of God (also known as Theotokos) to be their patroness. 14 October is also the Day of the Ukrainian Cossacks.
In an effort to adopt some Cossack traditions the Ukrainian Insurgent Army chose the day of the Intercession of the Theotokos to be the official day of their establishment.
On 12 October 2015 the National Bank of Ukraine put into circulation 50,000 pieces of 5 hryvnia coins with an inscription "Day of Defender of Ukraine".